Details
SHAVE THAT LINE
by Tom Freeman
Overall Print Size: 25" x 30½"
Edition Size: 750
On July 15, 1862, the lone Confederate ironclad, CSS Arkansas, managed to run through two Union Naval fleets at anchor on the Mississippi above Vicksburg. The Arkansas, already damaged from her earlier encounter with the USS Carondelet, Tyler and the Queen of the West, was unable to get up enough steam to make a fast run through the waiting armada. Her orders were to fight her way to the safety of the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg. The Arkansas had no option but to battle her way down the line. The order given by her commander, Lieutenant Brown, "shave that line of men-of-war as close as you can, so that the rams will not have room to gather headway in coming out to strike us." Battered and bruised, the CSS Arkansas managed to survive her run through the Union Naval fleet to the protection of the Vicksburg guns. Commander Brown was indeed correct in giving the order to "Shave That Line."
One of the few remaining prints bearing artist Tom Freeman's signature!
